


Encounters with Elements

by AstroGirl



Category: Sapphire and Steel
Genre: 5 Things, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-17
Updated: 2012-12-17
Packaged: 2017-11-21 09:46:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/596301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AstroGirl/pseuds/AstroGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five brief glimpses of Sapphire and Steel, through the eyes of others.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Encounters with Elements

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nyssa23](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyssa23/gifts).



> This was written for Yuletide for Nyssa23. Nyssa, I don't know if this is exactly what you were hoping for, but I've kinda-sorta worked in a couple of your suggestions, so I hope it suits. Each section is either 200 or 300 words exactly, because apparently I just have to make things more complicated for myself. Only the last one is based on a particular episode, so there's probably no point in trying too hard to figure out where these fit in canon. The individual titles are stolen from old _Twilight Zone_ episodes, because, hey, why not? Part 4 was heavily inspired by several of them.

1\. Back There

"Steel," says their superior, "this is Sapphire. Your new partner."

The two stand silently for a long moment, sizing each other up. Steel's gaze is unfriendly, appraising, Sapphire's relaxed and amused. As his expression deepens into irritation, hers bubbles forth into quiet laugher. 

Steel makes an abrupt, dismissive gesture, but there might be the faintest hint of a sardonic smile at the corners of his mouth. "Show me what you can do," he says.

"All right." She picks up an object, a rounded drinking vessel, and describes its history, its origin in time, the nature of all the faint, potentially hazardous energy traces that cling to it. She tosses it to him, picks up another, and does it again. She leans in close to him and reads his body, quietly reciting the details of his physical state; his abilities; his recent, invisible scars. Slowly, he begins to look impressed.

Unseen, Something observes them. Something takes note of the shifting possibilities it sees in their future. Its intelligence is less human even than theirs, but it knows dangerous enemies when it sees them. And it knows dangerous combinations of enemies. Already it is making plans, to be fulfilled... in time.

 

2\. Nothing in the Dark

"You can see me?" Beth feels a thrill of hope tingling through her. It's more than she's felt in a long, long time.

The woman in blue smiles. "Yes," she says. "I can see you."

"Most people can't," says Beth. "Most people... I can't see them very well, either. But you're... you're more _real_."

"Yes," the woman says again.

"Am I a ghost? I think I must be, only I can't remember dying. I walked through a door, an old door, and then I was..." She puts a hand to her chest. It passes through. She isn't even substantial to herself. "I wasn't _here_ anymore."

"You were taken," the woman says. Her voice is gentle, her expression calm and sad. "You were taken by Time. But not all the way. You aren't fully here, but you aren't fully there, either."

"Fully _where_?" says Beth, but before the woman can answer, a man strides up to them. He's real, too, gleaming bright and solid against the vague, fuzzy backdrop of the world. "It's time, Sapphire," he says.

"It's time that took me?" Beth says, but that's not what he means.

"I'm sorry," says the woman. "We can't bring you back, and we can't allow you to be pulled through to the other side. The consequences would be..."

" _Sapphire_ ," the man snaps. Beth thinks that must be the woman's name. It suits her, somehow.

Sapphire smiles. Her eyes are kind. "I _am_ sorry," she says. She turns to stare at the man as he arranges some objects on a table. Tools, photos, old bottles... Meaningless objects, but the two are intent on them as if they hold the key to saving the world.

"Wait," Beth says. "I don't--" 

Suddenly she _does_ remember dying. But only for a moment, before she's gone.

 

3\. Nightmare as a Child

The children sit around afterward and discuss it endlessly. 

"I think they were angels," says Jill.

"Nah," says Henry. "Aliens! Space aliens! They were probably only pretending to look like people. They probably have tentacles or something, really."

"I don't think they were," says Marie, who saw the most, that day. "Not properly. I think they were something like policemen. Or... Or more like firemen, maybe. Only not for fires."

"They could be alien policemen."

"Or _angel_ policemen," says Jill, and no one can argue against either possibility.

"Do you think they were married?" says Jill after they've all thought about that for a moment, although she's not certain whether that's something angels do or not. "The lady was awfully pretty."

"They said they were partners," says Marie. "I don't think that's like being married." But she remembers the worry in Mr. Steel's eyes when those shadow creatures from the clocks had hold of Miss Sapphire, trying to swallow her up and make her never have happened. She shrugs. "Or maybe it is."

"Do you think we'll ever see them again?" says Henry.

Marie closes her eyes. "I can see them now," she whispers. "I don't think I'll ever stop."

 

4\. Walking Distance

It's everything he ever wanted, everything he's longed for. The golden days of his childhood brought back to him, nostalgia made real. 

Geoff stands in the park, a park that was demolished when he was twenty to make room for a block of flats that was already tired and shabby before it was finished. The grass is the exact shade of green that he remembers. He breathes warm spring air with lungs that feel like they've never known a cigarette. All grime and disillusionment have fallen away. He's home again. He's young again. He weeps.

Hands yank him roughly back, through darkness, through dirt, through all the empty years of adulthood to the now. A man's voice, harsh with anger, calls him a fool. A woman's hand rests on his arm, whether to comfort him or restrain him, he isn't sure.

"No," he sobs. "No, let me go back. I was _home_! You have to let me go back!" But he knows it's too late.

The woman looks past him, at the man. "Have you ever wondered," she says softly, "what it would be like to have a home like that?" 

But the man turns his back and doesn't answer.

 

5\. Five Characters in Search of an Exit

They've been here a long time, the three of them. Long enough to have forgotten their own names. Long enough to begin wondering whether the world outside was ever truly real, whether they ever had lives beyond this room. Long enough to have stopped caring about the answer.

They drift through the void in their tiny prison without speaking, because they've long since uttered every possible meaningful sentence, and more than a few meaningless ones. They drift, and sit, and watch the stars go by.

Eternities slip away, one after another, until one of them catches sight of something approaching in the endless space outside. He points silently at it. A ripple of interest stirs through them for the first time since time had meaning.

It's another room. Another window. And at the window, two figures. Beings like them, more or less. One waves. One frowns.

One by one, they raise their hands to wave back, to touch the glass of the window. Nothing happens. That's the nature of this place, after all. Eventually they drift apart again.

"Well," one of them says. "I guess at least it's nice to know we aren't the only ones."

And silence falls again.


End file.
